California!!

May 8, 2026: I continuted through the pines and snow-covered mountains making my way northwest into California.

I found a very nice laundromat in the gorgeous town of Truckee. It had top loaders! It costs $6.00 per wash! Wow! That is the most expensive I've encountered in two countries! Wow!! Online I checked some other laundromats in other Californian towns and they are all about the same between $5.00 and $6.00 per load. Wow! I can't stop saying, "Wow!" The dryers were .25 cents for TWO MINUTES! As a comparison, in Arizona it's .25 cents for six minutes.

On that note, the highest gas prices so far are $6.39 per gallon. Oh, update: $7.00 per gallon!. About two to three dollars more than Nevada or Arizona.

I continued driving south through Lake Tahoe which is like a dream world! I don't even need to check to know I could never afford to live here! Followed Highway 89 north through the mountains which then opened up to the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen! Gorgeous mountains, green fields, tall pine trees, crystal blue lakes and rivers, and emerald green foliage. The most fragrant wildflowers all over the sides of the roads. California poppies, too! The landscape was dotted with pretty towns and idyllic farms. Lots of national forests, campgrounds (most are closed right now), and pull-outs for dispersal camping along the highway. May is always a great time of the year to road trip. It's spring and still "off" season. I'm sure I'll keep saying this, but after eight months in dreary, beige desert dust, this green is mesmerizing! The smell of the wildflowers and the pine trees is intoxicating. I forgot the smell of freshly cut grass still exists somewhere! I forgot how glorious real country is. I sure missed this!

I camped in a burnt-out forest west of Chester. Destruction as far as the eye can see. It's very discouraging. This area would have been spectacular to camp in when the trees were still healthy and alive. Now it's just desolate. This is by no means the only burn-out. They are all over. One must get permits for anything that has a flame: campfires, propane stoves, etc.

Why did I stay here when I'm sure there are better locations ahead? It was private, off the highway, and I was exhausted. I just needed to stop for the day. The weather is warm yet mild, the breeze is cool. It's a  perfect place to be, well, except for the blackened trees. It's definitly quiet and peaceful. Also, often it's difficult to find a free place to park overnight in the forest on weekends due to recreational visitors. May is not so bad, but as summer rolls around it will become more difficult. There is wide open sky and sunshine so everything in the van is working. This is a great place and it's my goal this adventure to slow down and stay put if it's great. So I stayed an extra day!

I watch a lot of van life videos, most are positive to a fault, unrealistic, and irritating. Some are warnings on how difficult van life is, aspects few people really discuss. Recently I saw a video produced by a young woman who had been living in her van for four years. She compared her old life paying rent, bills, working three jobs, meetings, dates, appointments, time demands and then emphasized how peaceful living in a van is not having to constantly be somewhere and worry about money, but to just relax and enjoy the time one has on this earth. I found this to be very inspiring. Aside from my constant worrying about potential mechanical worries, it is relaxing. It's only when I'm in Tucson for the winter subjecting myself to appointments, spending money, and constantly running errands that it gets stressful, but once I leave Tucson, I don't have to be anywhere! I'm just killing time, watching the scenery change everyday, and living my life.

Anyway. Here is a symbol of hope...hope for my current surroundings and hope for my future life:

These little seedlings are sprouting up all over!  A lot of these burn-outs are being forested since only the bark is often burnt leaving the wood underneath white. Wonderful wood! Why let it go to waste?

This is the life and death cycle of nature. Even after we are dead and gone, nature persists! Life continues. Too bad we can't be more responsible with her.

Continued to Redding to get water at Walmart and visit the Orchard Co-op. Disappointed in the co-op, I headed to Sprouts. Gas is $6.59 a gallon here. I stepped out of my van and was hit by the most glorious scent of WATER! There is moisture in the air finally!

I left Redding heading southwest with an idea to find a beach and warm-ish weather. I find if I select "avoid highways" Google Maps will take me on an off-the-beat-and-track adventure through the country giving me a chance to see something besides the sides of freeways which are quite boring. Today didn't disappoint. A16 was a twisty turning route through green-treed hills opening to gorgeous valleys of fields covered with green grass. Green, green, green! Unfortunately, these smaller country roads don't have tourist pull-outs so you can't stop and look. Also, you don't dare slow down to catch a glance with drop-offs on one side and farm trucks hauling horse trailers in the other lane driving twice as fast as they should. I drive these little roads really slowly not only because they are bumpy, but I don't want to take those twists too fast!

One problem with the twisty turning mountain roads besides the drop off is as one is negotiating those turns, back and forth, back and forth, one tends to get sleepy from the rocking motion! I nearly fall asleep at the wheel. I have to really concentrate to pay attention. This is not safe at all!

I continued along highway 36 which also winded its way through tall pines, high mountains, and deep valleys. Love the babbling rivers and creeks. I camped next to Rattlesnake Creek. The downside to camping under the trees is I wake up the next morning with very little solar power!

Into the Woods...

View from Big Blue of Rattlesnake Creek...yes, I'm watching for snakes.

The next morning I headed west on Highway 36 - such a gorgeous highway and this section of it twisted and turned magnificently through the mountains. I turned south onto Van Duzen Road. OMG! Narrow country road through the mountains and down into the incredibly deep valleys! I was driving the lane closest to the hill and the other lane, the drop-off, cliff-hanging lane, well, it was dropping off! At least every mile there was a stop sign right before most of the lane had fallen into the abyss! It was frightening! There was one part that looked like a mini-sinkhole! I didn't think to take photos until I was nearly off this highway so this one makes it look like I am exaggerating! In most cases the whole lane was gone!

Even though the road was narrow, potholed, broken, cracked and falling into the abyss, the views of the valleys miles below were stunning! Beautiful farms! Wildflowers covering the fields. Majestic pine trees. Green, green, green. All my allergies went away! Again, I couldn't take a lot of the photos I wanted to for fear of falling into the abyss myself...

I drove through Alderpoint and found my way to Garberville, cute little town with the spectacular Chatauquah Natural Foods Co-op including a restaurant that has been in business over forty years. Drove to Miranda along the Avenue of the Giants.

I scanned iOverlander for a place to camp. There isn't much along Highway 101 and I did not want to sleep at a highway turn-out so I headed to the beach. I suffered another twisty, narrow road with a drop off until I realized Google Maps didn't know where I was nor where I was supposed to go, and erroneously sent me seven miles up a mountain. I cussed my way down the mountain to the beach through beautiful farmland. Seeing a west coast beach nearly made me cry!  I walked a long the shore a bit and into the ice cold waves. This is Ferndale Beach:

Early the next morning with clouds. Sun was shining by 10am.

Stayed an extra night. Every morning around 6am the surfers showed up. Now I know I'm in California! Oddly enough they didn't park down by the beach, but up by me surrounding my van bumper to bumper. I felt a little bad taking what is obviously their space. It was fun watching them surf, but I know how cold that water is and I questioned their sanity. The second morning I said, "Good morning." and chatted them up a bit asking about surfing. One left, and the other came over to talk about surfing. He also told me about the real estate in the area and since he was a former nomad told me where NOT to camp on the coast: Eureka.

I drove through Ferndale and walked the main street, breathing deeply the pungent aroma of cow manure from the surrounding ranches. The architecture is wonderful! Old Victorian-style buildings maintained lovingly and painted in brightly decorative color schemes. The houses off main street and in the neighborhoods were the same with so much decorative variety!

This last photo is the miniature playhouse in the Hadley Park - beautiful garden with native plants, lots of flowers. Across the street was a laundromat with top loaders so I did a load of laundry at $5.00 per load.

I drove to Fortuna. My invection cooktop stopped working! The wire has pulled out of the unit. Damn! How do I cook anything? Sorry to say there aren't very many organic or gluten-free options out in the country. I attempted to visit an appliance store and they could fix it...minimum $30 just for the assessment then $90 per hour thereafter. Well, the cooktop only cost $99! I've started shopping around to see what to do. In the meantime, I'm limited to foods I don't have to cook. At first I was at a loss for how to do this since most foods one doesn't have to cook are high histamine and those make be miserable. However, I LOVE not having to cook! I love not using all my solar power for one meal then worrying how I'm going to keep everything running!

I've been casually looking for real estate as I travel, but in this area although there is a lot of cheap acreage, the reasons it's cheap is it has no access until one owns a monster ATV. Very disappointing especially since the landscape is so gorgeous. I did find a real estate agent who is fragrance free and scents make her sick!! Hooray! It's like a miracle! I wanted to cry with relief!

I attempted to look at property in Shelter Cove over on the coast with beautiful views of the ocean. Getting there was a nightmare with another narrow mountain highway, drop off on one side, and serious switchbacks! I was doing 10-20mph in a 45mph with big trucks constantly coming at me and coming up behind. It was terrifying. Big Blue at times did not want to go up hill and I feared she would stop working in the middle of a mountain. Before I even got to the properties, I turned around and went back! Still, it's gorgeous landscape and some of the giant redwoods were on route jutting up from the drop-offs.

I drove to Eureka to check out their health food store and go to Walmart. Surfer guy was right. There was something really creepy about Eureka. Most of the people looked homeless. Not that I have issues with the homeless since I am considered legally homeless, but they all seemed to have that crazed desperate look in their eyes. The Walmart was in a mall and I did not feel safe parking my van in the parking lot. I got water (which was free!) and didn't stay long.

That night I stayed at the Bear River Casino. One must check in at the "cage", get a Player's Club Card, sign some forms, and they give you a $10 credit to gamble! I've read some nomads win $50! Unfortunately, they allow smoking in most of the casino which drifts all over even into the non-smoking section so that's not going to happen. They have a whole page of rules to follow, but it's all basic etiquette and thoughtfulness that everyone should be following and so often people [in RVs] rarely do. I can use their bathroom! It's very quiet parked in the back parking lot once the employees with their loud car stereo systems leave. I walked around the casino every morning and every night.

View from the Bear River Casino with Ferndale in the distance.

The casino which is the property of the The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria (tribe) has the cheapest gas in SoHum (South Humboldt - the county) at $6.15 a gallon. There is a line up at the pumps everytime I drive by. I got up really early one morning and got in line before anyone else. I also dumped my garbage and my pee bucket in their bathroom. It's a great one-stop service.

May 16, 2026: It rained the last night and I had an overwhelming desire to leave the next morning. I headed up Highway 101 to Arcata then Highway 299 to Redding. The scenery was stunning and from about Big Bar to Weaverville the highway followed a gorgeous river. In Big Bar there was a kayaking event happening. On the way I passed quite a few adorable towns, but the most spectacular was Weaverville! Lots of art studios, art centers, art galleries, little stores, a Buddhist temple, museum. On the way in I saw a group of people on one of the corners who were about to protest! My people! I joined them for about twenty minutes. I kept thinking, I want to live here! And...there is a health food store for sale!! That is tempting! 

I stopped in Redding for no-cook foods then continued along Highway 299 turning off on Highway 89 northwest to a little camping spot in the woods on the way to Burney Falls National Park. Another van pulled in late at night and parked about 500 feet away, but left the next morning. Awesome hiking roads all interweaving and intersecting throughout the forest. Cool in the 60s, but windy and the windy caused a lot of dust.

Drove to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for some errands. Got everything done including making an appointment for an oil change and other van stressors that should have been done properly by other mechanics who failed miserably.  This is a neverending battle. This auto shop has the best reviews in town so I hope they can finally fix all the issues. Drove back to California and stayed at Indian Tom Lake which is right on the state border. I'm still amazed by all the water here in the north: beautiful lakes, pristine rivers and babbling creeks all around me. The dry dusty deserts of Arizona was really damaging to my psyche OR maybe it just made me appreciate the northwest.

Indian Tom Lake

Indian Tom Lake in the morning

Mt. Shasta in the morning

The Elimination Experiment, or Fatigue Testing

After five doctors and no answers, I'm determined to figure out why I'm always tired so I'm attempting some elimination tests.

The Paleo-Hashimoto's diet I been on has been very successful. I have not had any episodes of exhaustion. The "exhaustion" is when I am so tired I can barely move, lifting my arm takes enormous effort, and the only thing I am capable of doing is lying in bed. I'm not tired or sleepy and I can't sleep, I just can't seem to move. It's very frightening. It's the memory of those exhaustion episodes that helps me maintain my will power and keeps me from eating gluten and chocolate. I believe it's the gluten that provoke the autoimmune attacks on my thyroid.

The underlying fatigue started when I moved into this house eight years ago, maybe even a few years prior although it wasn't very apparent. I don't feel like exercising. I can often work through the fatigue with walking, gardening or projects, but no bike riding or stretching/exercising and even sitting still and reading feels like great effort. I experience the fatigue more in the spring and summer, and most often in the afternoon. I feel so tired I just want to nap, usually around 2pm to about 5pm.


Fatigue Theories:

Hay fever allergies are known for symptoms of fatigue and it's a little coincidental that most of my fatigue takes place in the spring and summer. As a child I lived in the country, dealt with hay fever, and as soon as I came of age I headed to the city where all my hay fever issues went away. I've now moved back to the country to get out of the pollution. There isn't much I can do about hay fever other than take drugs like Benadryl. Benadryl will clear up the respiratory symptoms like runny nose, sneezing, and sinus congestion, but it also causes fatigue. If all this fatigue is caused by hay fever allergies, my only alternative would be to move back to the city where I don't have allergies, but then I would have to suffer chemical exposures which are worse.

Air-borne chemicals  During the spring and summer the city sprays the streets, sidewalks and parks with herbicides and my neighbors spray their lawns. I do notice during the spring and summer there are days when if I go for a walk my lungs start feeling heavy and hurt. In addition, when my neighbor does laundry, it stinks to high heaven and pollutes the whole neighborhood. Incredibly toxic. Is it causing the fatigue?  Other than staying inside all summer, there isn't much I can do about air-borne chemicals other than to continue to do what I can to avoid exposure.

Mold  In the dirt? In the air? Spring and summer is when the ground and air warms. Does it activate mold growth? Every now and then if I dig in the garden, I become very tired. Might be a correlation or the correlation is the exercise? I don't know. I'll not dig in the dirt and use it as a test.

Computers and electromagnetic field exposures  I can keep track of the time I spend on the computer, but other than that it is another uncontrollable variable as I have to work.

Water-borne chemicals  I tend to feel tired once a month consistently and this leads me to believe there might be a connection to the city's water treatments and the fatigue I experience. I love soaking in the bathtub. I can take very short showers and see if that makes a difference and during the time period in question, avoid bathing all together and use it as a test.

Adrenal fatigue  Any number of things can contribute to adrenal fatigue, but stress is the number one factor.  I tend to be very reactive to emotions and sensitive to stress, but I don't have much on a daily basis. Bathing in hot water affects body temperature and puts a lot of stress on one's adrenals which could also affect energy levels. I have done some experimentation with adrenal support and nothing has made a difference. I'm at a loss for what else to try. No bathing might make a difference.

Diet  I've done well to reduce my intake of bad foods, but I still have my guilty pleasures and most of them are NOT on my Paleo-Hashimoto's diet. Although I don't eat a lot of the forbidden foods, every now and then I do treat myself.  Dried fruits are high in carbohydrates and affect blood sugar, and I'm addicted to raisins and dates as snacks. Yogurt (dairy) is known for inflammation, and unfortunately, when I get bored with the same old foods I treat myself with high fat, no sugar, plain yogurt. Potatoes are also high in carbohydrates (sugars) even though I eat them rarely, I haven't stopped completely. Grains are not on the diet either and I rarely eat gluten-free grain products with rice flour, potato flour or other substitutes, but every now and then for something different, I do. Rice is a carbohydrate and even though I don't eat it nearly as much as I did prior to starting this diet, I start feeling discombobulated if I go without it for up to two weeks. I also eat a lot of eggs, more than any human should consume. Are they causing fatigue? Let's find out. Can I give up these foods for three weeks? I'll need to add some recipes to my diet that will keep me full and satisfied like more beef and lamb.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome  One doctor suggested chronic fatigue, but I don't seem to have the other symptoms that accompany this condition. If so, there is nothing I can do about it.

Menopause and Hormonal Changes  Maybe. Not much I can do about this, either. Old people feel tired and nap a lot. I'm in that in between stage - I'm not old enough to retire, but I'm old enough to start feeling like I should. Damn.


Elimination Plan:

For three weeks I am not to soak in hot baths. Brief showers only except between the 19th and 25th when I sponge bathe in distilled water. No eating problematic foods (eggs, yogurt, dried fruit, potatoes or rice, gluten-free flours) for three weeks. I can't avoid the outside which would be ideal, but I can't stop what little exercise I'm getting and it's summer. I need sunshine for vitamin D. I'll keep track of everything I'm eating as well as anything unusual that I do or that happened during the day, for instance, air pollution encounters, labor-intensive projects, when I take a shower, and how often I'm on the computer.

Notes and Highlights:

The first day: NO FATIGUE. The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth days: NO FATIGUE.  Even after strenuous work, walking, or computer time, I didn't feel the normal afternoon fatigue. There were a few days when I felt a little tired around 6pm, but nothing that stopped me from functioning. I had high hopes that I was doing something right until the evening of the ninth day.

Day eight I was exposed to long grass and my hay fever symptoms went crazy. Later that night, I wanted to eat eggs. I couldn't stop thinking about them. It's the only thing I wanted to eat, but I didn't. Sinuses were painfully raw and respiratory tract was uncomfortably congested. The next day allergy symptoms were still bothering me, but not as bad. Later that night I started pacing around the kitchen like a caged animal. I'm hungry, but nothing looks good. I didn't eat rice although I know it would have stopped me from pacing. Tenth day woke up tired and stayed that way all day crashing around two in the afternoon and sleeping for two hours. Allergies?? Or maybe coming down off of allergies?

Around day five I started feeling like I want to exercise! Nothing strenuous, just stretching and movement, but normally I don't even feel like I'm capable of any kind of exertion.

After a week of no raisins or dates, I didn't even care. I really thought I'd have problems giving up the sugary stuff.

Air-borne chemical encounters clearly gave me headaches and migraines usually within a few minutes and the intensity depended on the encounter. Getting one whiff of that sickly-sweet laundry detergent wafting over from my neighbor's house nearly killed me one morning. I ran back into the house and stayed there for a few hours with the windows closed until I thought their laundry was done. Didn't seem to have any correlation to fatigue, though.

Around day seventeen I was COLD. My whole body cold. And hungry. I wanted to take a bath just to warm up, but instead crawled into bed for about an hour. Didn't sleep because I wasn't tired. Hungry all day, but nothing sounded satisfying. Later in the day I wanted to eat eggs. I didn't. I ate rice...I couldn't wait any longer.

The Challenges:

I added a "forbidden" for one day and stop for four days to see what happens.

RICE: no negative effects, felt better, no hunger and no fatigue

GLUTEN-FREE CUPCAKE WITH SUGAR: YUM! I couldn't help myself. I was awake later than usual (lots of energy), I seem to have more hot flashes, and slightly tired about four hours later with slight headache, but no crashing type of fatigue.

EGGS: The cravings indicated eggs might be an issue, maybe associated with hay fever? Eggs are really high in zinc which assists detoxification. As soon as I ate them I kept having to clear my throat. Then I ate them again and again all day. I felt a little tired at the bewitching hour (2:00pm), but not much and no crashing. I ate them again and had no reaction at all.

YOGURT: The yogurt was heavenly, I slept good after, and awoke with lots of energy the next morning. It's not yogurt!

POTATOES: Yum! I baked them as French Fries in olive oil. No fatigue. I do wonder if I ate them a lot or repeatedly for days if they would also produce fatigue. So several weeks later I tried that and experienced no fatigue.

GLUTEN-FREE PANCAKES: These are made with rice flour and some other stuff. I eat them so infrequently, maybe once every two or three months so it's been a while since I've had them. I went picking blueberries and thought this would be a good opportunity to make blueberry pancakes and test the reaction. I ate one pancake and felt really awful. About an hour later the headaches started and then I crashed and slept for two hours. All before noon! Fatigue and headaches the rest of the day.

BATH: I was getting a strange rash on my calves before I started this experiment which only got worse every time I took a bath. It nearly all went away during the bathing elimination phase.  I took a fast dip in a cool bath thinking a hot bath was causing the rash, and my calves started burning anyway. I had planned to take hot baths the whole day to test the fatigue, but if one short cool dip would cause the burning, I decided to wait to add hot baths later. I took that cool dip when the chemicals in the water are at their worst.

About a week later, I just wanted a bath and it was time to do a bath challenge. To soak in hot water. It was wonderful. Two hours later I did it again. I felt tired immediately after and crashed, sleeping for two hours. Took another bath and the headaches and nausea started. I jump in the shower with a gallon of heated distilled water and tried to rinse the water off. Even so, I woke up the next morning with nausea, pain in my lower back, a headache and fatigue and later that afternoon, crashed and slept for one hour. It took two days to recover and the whole time I felt groggy and tired. Is it the chemicals in the water? I've had problems with them in the past. Or is it the heat stressing my adrenals? I have no idea. Maybe both. But the rash didn't come back with the second bath. I think maybe the rash and nausea are from the chemicals and the fatigue is from the heat.

DRIED FRUIT: Oh, raisins and dates...my addiction. I was surprised it was so easy to give them up. For me, dried fruit might as well be straight sugar. I had a bad feeling and almost considered not using them as a test, but I needed to confirm. I bought a small bag of dates and immediately felt sick after eating some. Ate a few more of the dates the next day and around 2pm crashed for nearly FOUR hours. Good to know.

DIGGING IN THE DIRT/MOLD THEORY:  This was the last test. I cut all my lettuce and gave it to the food bank then the next morning I dug out all the roots. I dug deep and got my nose down in the dirt to make sure the exposure was good. No fatigue at all.


Conclusion:

Besides the normal dietary restrictions of gluten, sweeteners, dairy, tomatoes, mushrooms, pork, shellfish, high glycemic fruits, juices, junk food and processed foods:

*Stay away from hot baths.
*Stay away from bath during city treatment periods.
*Stay away from flours or grains (other than rice).
*Stay away from dried fruits.

*Limit egg intake.

*Continue limiting rice intake no more than once every ten days.

*Avoid potatoes and yogurt because they aren't on the Paleo-Hashimoto's diet, but if I treat myself, I know these items not causing the fatigue.

*Hay fever reeks havoc on my body. Oh well.

*Stay away from chemicals. Knew that.

The closer I get to following Dr. Kharrazian's Hashimoto's diet, the better I feel. The rice is still a cheat but I don't have a clue why it makes me insane not to eat it. I'll avoid potatoes and yogurt, also cheats, even though they don't affect me. That random fatigue episode after the hay fever reaction is puzzling, but I feel closer to an answer. Non-scientific tests done at home without laboratory control are really inconclusive at best. I have no idea if combinations of things create the fatigue or other variables, but this is the best I could do.

The plan and challenges took about two months total. I'm so tired of eating pot roast...

What is MCS?

For those of you who have no idea what MCS is, I will try to cover the basics in the next few posts. The letters stand for:

Multiple -  Affecting multiple bodily systems. The respiratory, neurological and digestive systems being the most commonly afflicted.

Chemicals - Common chemicals found in our homes and workplaces slowly or not so slowing poisoning us making those bodily systems dysfunction in different ways affecting our health and wellbeing.

Sensitivity - Not to be confused with allergies or intolerances. I've always hated the word "sensitivity". It's condescending. As in, "Oh, she's such a sensitive thing." It's misleading, and the terminology is confusing to most. MCS isn't an allergy as it doesn't indicate any kind of immunoglobulin response although telling people you have an allergy is the most comprehensive explanation as most have a basic understanding of what that might entail. However, I once read a quote from a woman frustrated by the assumptions of others and her explanation was, "If your child got hit by a truck would you say, 'Oh, he's allergic to Fords'? Chemicals are poisons.

I vote for changing "sensitivity" to "poisons". Multiple Chemical Poisons. Very clear and to the point. MCP. Also fun to say "Mmmmm...See...Pee."

How do you feel about the MCS moniker?